Project information

VIP - Violence Intervention Program

A specialised crime intervention and prevention service providing Project X which are ex offenders and ex users, who will be employed and trained to target , drugs, criminal activity, guns, knives gang related issues in kent and London, with or without the use of a bus.

Charity information: Refocus

Need

To address Gang culture and Knife crime awareness and education

Solution

Providing a mix of different ethnic minority groups and personal experience Refocus will target areas and provide a rapid response if required, by breaking down barriers, build relationships, provide positive role models, set up referral systems to specialised services, counselling and teach workshops on values, prison, family and relationships in partnership with local authority services.

Aim 1

Activities

» Provide prevention and awareness to schools/youth organisations in South East London » Reach 300 young people who are involved in gangs, guns and knife crime through outreach on key parts of Kent and London » Recruit 2 ex offenders and train them to become peer mentors to reach 50 young people specifically from criminal backgrounds and empower them » 4. Support mentor and 50 young people per year struggling with issues around gangs, Knives and violence.

What success will look like

Impact

Refocus aim's to break the cycle of offending and prevent young people getting involved in crime by using people who have been to utilise their case studies and help young people to relate. This breaks down barriers and provides empathy towards young people and encourages young people to want to change . Refocus will mentor to young people and support them through the process of change.

Risk

There is risk that some services will not want ex offenders on their local areas, some local authorities & police may struggle to provide support To us. Refocus will only deliver their services in areas of local authority support and school support. We have realised we needed to build strong relationships and have done this in Peckham,Greenwich,Bromley, kent and Westminster, therefore we aim to work with services who already know us in order to build our reputation and diffuse fears .

Reporting

Refocus will send 3 monthly reports and evaluate impact of each project
Through verbal and written feedback and from the services we will be working with.

Location

We also started work in forest gate which was very had hitting and creating lots of positive results, 50 young people asked for one to one support and unfortunately we had to stop due to lack of funding.
We are working in partnership with Youth services in Greenwich, Bromley , forest gate schools, and community safety partnerships in Lewisham, Peckham and Deptford. In Kent with youth offending teams, youth services, drugs services, KCC, schools, housing associations.

Beneficiaries

Local community will benefit from the reduction of crime and a sense of safety, we know families who will not walk down certain public areas due to post code rivals.
Vulnerable Young people in crime and gangs will benefit from the support to come out of them
Most importantly young people considering joining a gang or getting involved in crime will make more informed choices.

Why Us?

Refocus is a team of people who have been there and young people say that they listen to them because of our experiences and they know what we they are talking about. We differ from some services that use people with a prison background because not only do we know how to do time inside prison but we also know how to do time outside. We can survive in the real world and can help young people cope with boredom and rejection.